As per the law,oath of office is a statement of loyalty to the Constitution of India. Under the laws of a state it may be considered ‘treason; or ‘high crime’ to betray a sworn oath of office.The fact is each of these four judges had taken sworn oath of office saying-

"I, (name), having been appointed Chief Justice (or a Judge) of the Supreme Court of India, do swear in the name of God (or affirm) that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established, that I will uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India, that I will duly and faithfully and to the best of my ability, knowledge and judgment perform the duties of my office without fear or favour, affection or ill-will and that I will uphold the Constitution and the laws."

Now,need to be noted is that none of these judges appeared to have performed duties of his office “without fear or favour,affection or ill-will.”This is evident from the part of the text of the letter these four senior Justices- J.Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur and Kurian Joseph –had submitted to the CJI and the same issue was raised before the media on Friday.The part of the text of their letter made public by them reads:

“We are sorry to say that off late … there have been many instances where case having far –reaching consequences for the Nation and the institution had been assigned by the Chief Justices of this court selectively to the benches “of their preference” without any rationale basis for such”.

Simply because they wanted certain cases to be heard in the court.As such they showed that they had a common desire to secure ‘favour” and “affection” from the CJI.And then when they found that the CJI not “favouring’” them,they developed “ill will’ against him and revolted.

Now,shock,disbelief and gloom engulfed courts and high courts across the country.The initial reaction was one of shock and disbelief.”Our minds have gone numb.It is unbelievable act against judicial system”,said Rajiv Singh,an advocate.

Singh was not prepared to share his ‘grief’ further.Neither were many other lawyers whom this correspondent contacted.Another lawyer Sudhir Kumar who had seen and heard the Congress President Rahul Gandhi addressing the media and CPI leader D.Raja meeting Justice Chelameswar before the press conference,said the ‘ unprecedented act of these four judges appears to be part of the opposition Congress design to launch fresh attack on the PM Narendra Modi.”

In fact,their revolt took place two days after CJI Dipak Mishra ordered a Special Investigation Team to reopen 1984 Sikh riots cases and investigate 186 cases related to it.Last month,CJI Deepak Mishra slammed Congress MP Kapil Sibal when he asked to postpone the judgement of Ram Janmbhumi case after July 2019.More importantly,CJI Mishra is leading the bench which is expected to pass judgement on Rama Janmbhumi case.